Thedas: The New World
by TheJackinati275
Summary: The Year is 1510, or 9:29 Dragon, The Ottoman Empire has cut of Trade to the Eastern lands of China, And without the spices and Silks, Europe will plummet. A Spanish Explorer and his ship aim to reach the Orient by going west, Instead they discover a Land surrounded by war and mages, Instead they Find Thedas. Will the Spanish Come for Trade, Or will they Come for Conquest?
1. Chapter 1: Aboard the Pinta

Thedas: The New World

**Disclaimer: Dragon Age owned by Bioware**

**Language Notice:** At Certain points there will be excessive swearing and certain Symbols that may offend certain viewers. Viewer Discretion Advised

**Note: **This is an AU (Alternate Universe) where Eurasia and Thedas Exist on the same planet. Certain things will be different and others will be the same. Thedas takes the place of the New World and it is discovered in the Early 16th Century by a Spanish Exploration ship called the _Pinta_. In This AU Europe has no mages or magic because Europe is devoid of Lyrium. However in Asia there are some sources of Lyrium which caused the Mongols to venture out of Asia and conquer much of Eurasia

I have checked the Fanfics on and I cannot find a similar story or idea written yet for Dragon Age. I have had this idea in my mind since I got Dragon Age II about nine months ago. I remember first getting Dragon Age II after excessively playing Shogun II Total War.

To those of you who have played it, I am sure you know what I mean when a certain ship arrives and you get your first Nanban Quarters.

Well anyway the moment I saw the mission that was titled 'Blackpowder Promise' or something like that, my head just spun this idea of what it would be like if a Spanish ship landed on Thedas. After revising what i have thought in my head i decided i would gain the courage and write this down.

So that is the premise of my fanfiction. What if a Spanish ship landed in Thedas?, just imagine the impact on the story, the impact of trading, new technology, new ideas, new ways of thinking, new religions, newly devised ways of killing your opponent. Fortresses that once defended your kingdom will now be at the mercy of concentrated artillery fire. Now that would change the story, after all, would the battle of Ostagar have been changed if there had been but a few Cannon blasting those dark spawn to hell, or perhaps a line of well drilled halberdiers and pikemen turning the darkspawn's rushing momentum against them and right into the spear point!... But no, the fereldans had to rush out of formation and charge towards the Darkspawn, because that is the most tactically sound plan.

* * *

1510 AD

-Somewhere in the Amaranthine Ocean-

She was the _La Pinta_, the painted. The hundred and eight ton Nao was armed with one 24 pounder culberina as well as two half-pounder breech loading guns of the last century. The culberina was mounted permantly on the right side of the forecastle away from the out-jutting mast. The _Pinta_ was laden with cotton, velvet and a small quantity of medium quality saffron that Eduardo bought from the Venetians. These goods were to be traded in the Orient for a plethora of unimaginable goods, spices, gold, silver or gems from the far regions. Eduardo really hoped that there was an Orient, that there was a fabled 'Cathay' and that it was not a fairy tale made up by the great Marco Polo.

There was one other vessel, the _La Belladona_, but during a foul wind the caravel was scattered about three days hence and she was presumed gone below with all hands lost. Eduardo was not going to spend precious resources or time to change direction and mount a search, as that would bring his ship forward of the wind and slow the _Pinta_ down to a snail's pace.

Eduardo de Cordoba was not having a very good day; he repeatedly checked his mariner's astrolabe as well as his quadrant to get more accurate reading's before he mentally marked out accurate mathematical readings within his head. Eduardo checked his compass and noted that the ship was heading in a Westerly direction. Eduardo smiled at the fact that the _Pinta_ was on course, a great difference from the past four days where the wind changed direction and Eduardo had to take a South easterly course to avoid being scattered by the winds of which the _Belladona_ was. Eduardo grimaced that nothing ever goes to plan the way that they were meant to. Remembering the precise mathematical data that Eduardo stored within his head, he wrote down on his navigational rutter.

Eduardo disliked navigating the ship, it wasn't even his job in the first place. It was the Italian Peruchio's job in the first place but the spineless goat was probably availing himself to the Castilian wine held below deck.

Eduardo took the time to stretch his legs as he barely moved after hours of Mathematical guesswork.

Eduardo was good with mathematics when it came to siege cannon since he had learned extensively when he was barely sixteen how to load, fire, fix, and calibrate a siege cannon just like the bombards used during the siege of Grenada. Eduardo knew how to mix the right amounts of charcoal, sulphur and saltpetre to create artillery grade powder. Eduardo learned mathematics from a Studia Generale (University) in Salerno, Italy, although he was also taught Theology and he studied briefly in medicine. Eduardo received a bachelor's degree in Mathematics.

At thirty-two years old, Eduardo was content to reach middle age. He owned a medium sized manor house and he was descended from minor Castilian nobility that dated back since Cordoba was conquered in 1236. Eduardo's true love was of the sea and what lay beyond. The stories told around campfires between his brothers as well as reading aloud the tales of Marco Polo enamored Eduardo with a fascination on exploration. Eduardo wanted to visit Cathay (China) ever since that moment.

"Rodrigo Martinez at the wild geese... he"

Eduardo was disturbed from his thoughts when he heard the sounds of a Viola da gamba, a lute and a bagpipe as well as a chorus of voices sung in cheer. A nearby soldier had his helmet held against his knee which he struck with a small wooden stick to emulate a drum.

Eduardo scratched at the back of his neck before he set down all of his measuring implements and began to step down from the aftcastle and onto the deck.

"Thinking they were cows, he whistled. He!"

Eduardo instantly recognised the song; it was Rodrigo Martinez, a famous folk song about the fool gooseherd who thought he was a cow herder. Eduardo knew this song as well as most other sailors and it was a personal favourite of his, so Eduardo decided to join in with the singing.

"Rodrigo Martinez so handsome, your little geese the river carries away, he!"

"Thinking they were cows he whistled at them, he!"

The crew members began tapping their feet onto the decking.

"Rodrigo Martinez so strong, your little geese the ford carries away, he!"

"Thinking they were cows, he whistled at them, he!"

The song ended and everybody on the deck cheered and where in high spirits.

Eduardo knew all too well though that this trip could very well end up in disaster unless they can find landfall and replenish their fresh water supplies soon otherwise they would all perish in less than two weeks.

The _Pinta_ had been sailing west for two months trying to find a new route to the Orient now that the heathen Ottomans and their Islamic bastards blocked off the spice route to Europe. The Ottomans charged outrageous sums of money for any goods for silks and spices and they were the life blood of the European economy. Iff the Kingdom of Castile were the only European power with the ability to send ships to the Orient, then the Kingdom of Castile would become the new prominent power figure in European politics... not to mention one of the richest kingdoms in all Christendom.

Eduardo was broken from these thoughts by the booming voice of the heavily bearded Boatswain who shouted out on the deck then rang on the Nao's bell, awaking the sleeping crew held below decks.

"Approaching vessel!"

Eduardo rushed to the side of the boat to see what the source of the commotion was. On the horizon Eduardo saw the flashes of candle light from a ocean-going vessel. By Eduardo's vague guess it was probably about a kilometer out.

Eduardo quickly pushed and shoved through the onslaught of rushing crew members before reaching the boatswain.

"Tell the gunners to grab their hand guns and their implements, then tell the crossbowmen to grab their arms. Tell the soldiers to arm them selves with padding doublets and to grab halberds or pikes to repel boarders"

After issuing his orders to the boatswain, Eduardo ran back up to the Aftcastle and leaned his chest against the wooden rafter beam on the starboard side of the ship. Newer details emerged from the gained height of the aftcastle which allowed Eduardo to notice that the vessel appeared to be long and shallow. The outline looked similar in shape to a galley which would probably be crewed by many men and possibly slaves. The galley had its sail lowered against the wind. Eduardo quickly righted himself off the wooden rafter beam before he shouted out orders to the crew.

"Dust off that Culberina and get her primed and ready, then drag and assemble those old breech loading guns out of the hold and put them on the forecastle. If they come in for boarding use small shot."

Eduardo paused for a moment before issuing orders to the soldiers, crossbowmen and arquebusiers.

"Soldiers, use your pole arms to sweep the enemy from our decks. If they get in close switch to arming swords. Arbalesters and Harquebusiers gather on the aftcastle and forecastle and await my orders!"

The assembled pell-mell of soldiers and sailors rushed together to their assigned positions. Many of them were wearing loose assortments of armoured padding jack's or barely buckled brigandines, whilst assembled crossbowmen and arquebusiers wore their off-coloured quilted gambesons and kettle helmets that were barely secured to their heads.

Everybody on the deck held out their fists high into the air and shouted out one chant repeatedly.

"For Santiago, for the holy father, for Santa Maria and the holy child, for King Ferdinand and Castile!"

"Castile!"

"Castile!"

"Castile!"

Only three people did not applaud, and those where the two Italian's and father Domino. Peruchio de Milano was the main Navigator and a master ship builder who stood with an arquebus in his hands and wearing his barely secured iron cuirass attached to his thin frame. Then there was Luigi de Florencia, an experienced pilot, an ex galley slave and a veteran of the Reconquista who held in his hand a Halberd. He wore a padding doublet with his sallet helmet with the visor up. The last person was father Domino, a large franciscan monk who stands at 6'2. Father Domino is a kind and loving soul who is sworn to a life of poverty. His hair is black and tonsured in the correct style.

Eduardo quickly shouted out to the three foreigners.

"Peruchio, Domino, Luigi… up here!"

The trio quickly heeded Eduardo's words and ran up the stairs.

"What is it that confounds you and your crew?" spoke Peruchio in confusion.

Eduardo pointed to the horizon with his right hand to the quickly approaching Galley.

Luigi saw the galley and grimaced, probably remembering his past life as a galley slave to the Barbary pirates who skirted the mediterranean coastlines.

"From the looks of it I would say there is a crew of sixty at best to a hundred at worst!" spat Luigi.

"Yes that was my fear as well, we are but with a crew of thirty nine. Where once we were with fourty three but four are dead of the pox. We are outnumbered possibly three to one. Let us pray that they are without cannons or similar" replied Eduardo who scratched his beard in stress.

Eduardo was suddenly struck with a malicious idea.

"I remember buying a store of grenado's and fire rockets for the expedition just for this scenario were we ever to find cruel natives. Mayhaps we can bare the devils firey asshole on our enemies and smother them with smoke and flames"

With that idea in his head, Eduardo issued an order to Luigi.

"Luigi, change our course and get our foredeck in line with the vessel"

Luigi thought through that order for any holes but could find only one drawback, it would bring the _Pinta_ out of the wind and slow the _Pinta_ down to a snails pace, but it was a sound plan, especially when it brought the galley in line with the forecastle's gun.

"An excellent plan bringing the gun about their ship, but it will pull us out of the wind"

"To hell with the wind Luigi, if they mean us harm i want my guns upon them. I will not be boarded from the sides and have my guns useless, i paid many florins for them and by god i will use them!"

Eduardo turned to see as a group of crewmen rushed out with a large iron barrel as well as a large iron cup. Eduardo knew then that they were bringing up bits of one of the breech loading guns. These crew members rushed through until they reached the forecastle before dropping their load and rushing back into the hold to reclaim more pieces.

Luigi used his great muscles to force the rudder to move the ship and get her within the direction of the possibly hostile galley. If the Galley proved to be hostile then they would blow it out of the water.

Eduardo watched the galley carefully.

The galley seemingly spotted Eduardo's ship and changed their course. Eduardo could tell because the galley had raised her sails and she was picking up speed whilst the _Pinta_ snailed away against the currants and the wind like an over packed mule.

Eduardo constantly ordered for changes in the Culberina's elevation as the galley came ever closer with the _Pinta_.

"Boatswain, tell the gunner's to lower the quadrant of the cannons by one degree"

The Boatswain rushed toward the gunnery commander and told him the orders. To lower the gun's elevation one of the gunners grabbed a mallet and began to beat upon a wedge of wood holding the barrel until the elevation changed.

Eduardo returned to looking out over the Pinta, waiting anxiously and praying that the enemy were not too numerous.

Eduardo turned around to face the forecastle and saw that one of the breech-loading guns was fully deployed and had a gunner filling up the iron cup with gunpowder before tamping it off with a small plug made of wood that was hammered in with a wooden mallet.

Eduardo returned his gaze back upon the galley, it was now about 800 meters distant.

Luigi turned around to face Eduardo before speaking.

"That galley will be here in two minutes, or maybe a scant three if we are lucky"

The galley came closer still and upon reaching the 700 meter mark, Eduardo ordered for the gun crew to lower the elevation of the culberina.

"Lower elevation by naught five a degree"

The gunnery chief quickly set to work.

Eduardo turned his eye toward the crew on the deck and on the Aft and forecastles to see if they were ready to repel boarders.

The short answer was… they were. They were holding onto their halberds, spears, poleaxes and other staffed weapons. They had their swords in their scabbards and some had bucklers on their hips in case they had to rapidly switch from polearms to sword and buckler. Eduardo even saw as a few people prayed to god silently whilst they readied themselves. Eduardo also noticed out of the corner of his eye a soldier carrying out a wooden box filled with grenado's, small clay grenades around 7-9cm in diameter filled with blackpowder and a soldier dispersed them out to nearby arquebusiers who held them on the side of their powder horns so that the grenado's would not be facing the side where the match cord will be facing when the arquebusier would reload as they would have to remove the match cord to refill the priming pan.

Eduardo stopped looking outwards and returned to gazing at the enemy galley. Domino was standing in a corner surrounded by kneeling soldiers with their hands held in front of their noses. Eduardo began to kneel alongside his men and held up both his hands to his chest and lowered his head down as Domino said benediction.

Eduardo prayed silently to himself. "Lord, see us through this day and through this journey that we may preach to the heathens and natives of the lands… Amen"

After the prayer was over, Eduardo returned to the starboard side of the aftcastle and continued looking at the approaching galley which was now about 300 meters away. As the ship came closer and closer with each moment, more details of the ship could be seen such as the appearance of flags with what appeared to be a skull with a red slash through the middle of the skull.

"The Heraldry is unfamiliar to me, do any of you notice it?" spoke Eduardo as he turned around to face the two Italians.

Both Italians studied the flag for a moment before Peruchio replied.

"No, it is not Heraldry that I know of. It is not European nor is it Islamic, could it be from the fabled Cathay's or even from the Zipangu's?" *1

Unexpectedly, the sound of impacts against wood played out against the deck followed by shouts of pain. Eduardo realised that his ship had been attacked by an enemy crew of archers. Shafts of arrows found themselves embedded against decking, and from the vertical positioning Eduardo knew that they were firing indirectly at a high angle.

The arbalesters, crossbowmen, arquebusiers as well as all the soldiers and crewmen on the decks of the _Pinta_ took refuge beneath the short side walls that flanked the_ Pinta_, praying that they would not be struck down in foreign waters so far away from Spain.

Up on the aftcastle, Eduardo quickly gave the order for the Crossbowmen to load their arms.

"Crossbowmen... get ready to loose!"

Some of the arbalester's raised their chins against the thin walls to peek at their opponents before they pulled out their steel windlasses and began to wind up their crossbows. The soldiers on the deck began to line up on the starboard side of the deck and readied their staffed weapons as the approaching galley reached the two hundred metre mark. Several other soldiers held out their shields or bucklers into the air knowing that a ranged attack would commence sometime within the future, their previous military experiences from the reconquista or the Italian war's had taught them that.

That sound, the same sound as arrows struck wood quickly reverberated throughout the Nao. It was the whistling sound of the arrows approaching the ship which came from the enemy galley. The arrows embedded themselves on the hull and spiked themselves into the floors wooden decking. From what Eduardo had seen, there were no deaths however there were a few minor injuries from several crewmembers. Some arrows pierced through chain links in peoples armour or going through padded cloth but nothing that could kill a person. The arrows noticeably either bounced or glanced off of the steel and iron plated armour, however the arrows did cause some bruising injuries on men in plate armour. Eduardo guessed from the penetration ability and range of the attacks that their opponents where using bows with anywhere upwards of a one hundred pound drawback weight, similar to a weaker version of an English Longbow.

The Italian Luigi raised out his right hand with his thumb and two middle fingers lowered and shaked his hand from side to side whilst he shouted out insults. "Cornuto… I will fuck your wives you spineless dogs!"

As soon as Luigi was done with his crude ranting, he turned to look upon Eduardo before speaking.

"I think they plan to ram into the _Pinta_"

Eduardo quickly turned to face the deck before he shouted down orders to the cannoneers.

"To hell our enemies go... fire all cannon!"

A third rain of arrows descended down upon the _Pinta._ There were no deaths but the injuries where steadily increasing and the penetrating power of the arrows where getting more powerful with each metre that the enemy vessel closed in on the ship.

A scant second later, the twenty-four pounder culberina and the only fully assembled half-pounder breach-loading gun gave out their ferocious roar's, as they issued breaths of fire and pouts of smoke.

And then there was a fourth arrow rain. As before there were no deaths but a few took some severe injuries. One man took an arrow through the cheek and Eduardo knew that he would probably die in less than a week through infection. Iron suits of plate received minor denting but suits of steel plate or suits of brigandine construction received barely a scratch as the arrows glanced off the armour with a 'ding'.

Once the galley reached the one hundred and seventy metre mark, The _Pinta_ began to show its teeth as the crossbowmen holding their crossbows leaned up against the wooden rafters before they held out their arbalest's at a thirty degree angle and let loose.

* * *

-Aboard the enemy galley-

Saarec exerted plenty of force on the oar as he rowed.

Saarec was one of many oar rowers propelling the large forty-metre long galley forward. The ship was against the wind and so the sails were lowered and the rowers were put to work.

Saarec sighed as he took another pulling motion to propel the ship forward before raising the oar out of the ocean and into the air before Saarec would again lower the oar and pull against the sea to further the ship along. It was back breaking labour and took plenty of strength. Saareec decided to take a small sip of water from his water gourd which he held around his chest via a leather strap. As soon as Saarec drank a few sips, he replaced the cap of the gourd and lowered it back to his strap and then rested his arms against the oar as he relaxed his leg muscles.

After about few seconds of resting his aching muscles, he saw and heard the voice of the red haired captain who was an Orlesian ex-noble and now the captain of a pirate ship belonging to the raiders of the waking sea.

Saarec was a recent Tal-Vashoth after he lost his soul weapon. Knowing that he would be killed, Saarec deserted the Qun and joined the pirate vessel as a sell sword and was hired with barely a second glance from the captain, probably because Qunari are renowned for being excellent warriors.

There was a growingly heated discussion between the captain and the crew. From Saarec's limited knowledge of Orlesian, Saarec slowly translated out small snippets of conversation.

"Should we intercept that ship..." spoke one sailor.

"I haven't seen a ship design like it before, those sails are oddly shaped" replied a pirate.

"There is a defensible position on the aft of their deck; if we board it we may receive several casualties from defenders using it as cover" spoke an experienced mercenary.

"That red crisscross, is it heraldry?... I 'aint never seen it before" replied another pirate.

"What's with that weird off-cut sail on the back, i have never seen a sail like that on a ship before" replied a third pirate.

Saarec decided that he would take a quick peek at the vessel before returning back to rowing.

Saarec noticed just as one of the sailors said, that the sails towards the back of the opposing vessel were diagonally shaped, something that Saarec had never seen before on a naval vessel. Saarec wondered how the triangular sail would perform in the wind, fortunately the wind favoured the galley as it changed coarse to intercept the new ship. Saarec later guessed that the opposing ship was very small and probably only had a crew of about forty to sixty, whilst the Crew aboard the galley were about 100 strong.

"It looks like a new vessel type to me. I have never seen a ship designed like that, i say we board the vessel and bring it back home. I am guessing we could make some good money selling off a unique ship" spoke the captain.

"Aye" said the assembled group together in a chorus.

"Oarsmen… full speed ahead" Shouted the captain.

Saarec took the cue and began to lift up his oar and began to row back and forth, back and forth and so on.

After what felt like hours of rowing, the sound of arrows being nocked and of taut bowstrings sounded throughout the ship. On the captain's order, the sound of arrows sent careening sounded forth like a trumpet call to battle. It was a suitable term then, now that a battle was about to occur and with an unknown vessel as well.

After about another forty seconds of rowing, Saarec heard the noise of taut bowstrings followed by the loosing of arrows.

This continued another two times before a new sound emerged... and then Saarec saw as the rower's deck was surrounded by wooden debris. Saarec turned to see that a watermelon sized hole had emerged from the wooden hull... and a gigantic ball of iron had continued its way until it embedded itself on the superstructure of the galley and cracked it. A moment later that wooden structure gave way and fell, dropping a small section of the galley downwards and crushing about ten rowers to death.

Saarec knew what he was dealing with, he had seen similar impacts before. The opposing vessel were armed with cannon, powerful cannon. The Cannonball had not killed anyone but the damage it did to the ship itself was staggering.

At that point, the captain had enough and shouted out to his crew.

"Take the fucking vessel, i want everyone onboard killed like the whores they are"

Saarec knew that such a small vessel would be hard to hit especially at night. It also meant that the crew on the enemy vessel would be more packed together. If they were poorly armed and armoured _'Like this crew were'_, then they would suffer many casualties, if they were armoured like a military vessel however,_'then they would be barely injured from this distance'_

The archers aboard the galley pulled out another arrow from their quivers, nocked them and then pulled the bowstrings back until it reached the side of their cheeks like they did before… and then they let loose. The sound of another swarming volley of arrows sounded throughout the ship

The captain smiled as he was sure that his archers would have sent hell throughout their enemies ranks, little did he know that his enemies where well trained veterans armoured in armour that rivaled what many of what those on Thedas wished they could have.

"Nice work, one more volley then we board the buggers!"

His soldiers cheered for a moment while his archers nocked their arrow's, they then altered their bows by a few degrees to level with the enemy vessel better, then set their arrows loose again.

The crew of the galley met face to face with a volley of their own to suffer as a stream of thick steel crossbow bolts met flesh and hull in an instant. Saarec saw with slight terror as the steel bolts inflicted many deaths and injuries to the crew. Saarec watched as one archer took a bolt through the back of his skull and saw that there was still a bit of the bolt at the front of his head even though he was wearing a plated helmet. Saarec also saw as one of his nearby oarsman literally had his hand pinned to his oar as a crossbow bolt struck through it.

In all his years Saarec had never seen such a powerful crossbow devised before. It were as though these crossbows were the rival offspring of ballista.

The galley was rocked by a new impact... another cannon blast emerged from the opposing vessel.

It struck low, dangerously low.

As if to confirm Saarec's notion, a shout emerged from the lower deck.

"Captain, we've sprung a leak. It was a rock the size of a big orange that came through and split into pieces. It killed two men and struck a third!"

Morale aboard the ship plummeted drastically and whatever courage the captain had left him at that moment.

"By the vale!"

Most sailors grabbed boarding axes and cutlasses and began donning simple garments for protection whilst several other sailors began collecting several sets of nasty looking grappling hooks for boarding.

As the galley neared the enemy vessel, Saarec began to see what the enemy crew looked like. Several of them seemed to be wearing strange suits of armour with well-shaped helmets that looked to have a strange bit that could be raised or lowered to cover the face. Others were dressed in simpler and less intricate designs, whilst the soldiers on the top's of the tower like contraptions seemed to have worn simple padded armour save for their hat like helmets. Saarec saw what appeared to be several men bent over reloading their crossbows and saw as others began striking what looked to be flints from the sparks generated.

After several moments of looking, Saarec saw as a plume of fire approach the galley, or rather it was until the object veered off course then hit the water no more than forty metres shy of the galley.

The crew laughed and the moral was raised, or rather it was until another of those strange projectiles was launched. This second projectile also veered off courset, but instead of hitting the water it flew straight up into the air and exploded into a shower of brightly illuminated flames accompanied by a large BOOOOM.

People looked out in shock, which was then followed on by expressions of fear as another of those strange projectiles came forth. This one did not veer off or tumble. It penetrated into the galley's deck and embedded itself against the hull for a moment, there was a tail made out of rope that was burning rapidly towards a container attached to the shaft of the arrow like projectile. A moment later the device exploded in a shower of heated sparks and a huge BAAAAANG that caused a ringing in Saarec's ears. The deck was covered in sparks and flames that catched onto stray rope and sail cloth before burning fiercely.

It took a few seconds before the ringing in Saarec's ears stopped but when it did the ringing was replaced by large crackles and pops and Saarec saw as invisible projectiles tore away at people's bodies. Nothing could stop the projectiles except for solid steel armour but even then the damage was so severe as it defaced the suits of armour and made them next to useless. Saarec threw his oar to the ground and stood up to look at what caused such destruction.

Saarec saw with his eyes that the enemy vessel was covered in smoke, until a slight southerly breeze cleared the smoke from the ship and Saarec could clearly see what caused such death. Men held what looked to be a large cylindrical object with a match on one end, similar in shape to a crossbow but without the tiller. He then watched as the front row cleared from view and another row of men came out and they took aim with their weapons. A figure with brightly coloured cloth shoulder puffs held out his hand, which he lowered after a few seconds… signalling to the men to fire their weapons.

Four people were killed outright and another two where severely injured. One man clutched the stump that was once a set of five fingers turned into two, his index finger and his thumb, he moaned loudly before falling into shock.

Morale aboard the ship plummeted and people began to duck and crawl around haphazardly trying to avoid getting hit, whilst other sailors began to trip over the injured or dead or scared people. In certain parts of the ship blood became a slipping hazard whilst other sailors tried to combat the flames that took hold of the rear of the ship caused by the unusual projectile weapon.

The second row of men on the enemy vessel then took hold of their weapons and began to step back whilst a row of crossbowmen took to the front row and they too took aim. they let loose a volley which, this time caused few casualties or deaths as people cradled and hid behind bits of decking to protect them from the oncoming steel bolts.

For now the vessel appeared to be free of enemy projectiles. The enemy crew were busy as they took the time to reload their weapons.

Using this percieved opportunity the captain quickly took advantage of this and began to take charge of his men, this raised the crews morale massively but they were still scared.

"Archers, take aim on their castle like tower"

The archers quickly ran out of their hiding spots and took aim, but they were never able to fire as a new round of explosions came forth from the enemy vessel.

Men on the sides were throwing out rock like objects that had one end lit. they struck against the galley before sliding around and falling through the decking before exploding and sending bits of clay shrapnel each and every direction. The explosions did little damage to the hull but they were horrible against men, tearing away at skin and flesh and leaving fierce burn's.

Saarec for the first time in his life felt something akin to fear when he saw whole sections of men get torn apart as bits of flesh and gore all about the galley.

"Gaatlok… Gaatlok"

Saying this repeatedly he caught the eye, or rather ear of the captain.

"Gaatlok, you mean blackpowder... are we dealing with Qunari!"

Saarec nodded his head down. "No"

"Then how the hell did our enemies get it?"

Saarec shrugged his shoulders.

The Captain quickly ran to the deck and shouted

"One hundred gold and seventy-five silver to the man that secures a cannon on the enemy vessel"

The damaged moral of the vessel rose again. Men took out their cutlasses or boarding axes and other such arms. The oarsmen quickly rushed to the dead to pick up arms, every one eager to secure the money before someone else got it first. Saarec himself was marvelled by how humans changed so quickly when money was offered and inwardly grew sickened at his fate of becoming a Tal-Vashoth. Saarec too went to a dead crew member and took his weapon, a boarding axe.

The Captain quickly retreated to the back of the ship and locked himself in his quarters whilst he left the sailors to fight for themselves.

The men aboard the galley were sixty strong. On the opposing side they probably numbered at less than forty... Saarec knew the enemy were out numbered, but the enemy were well armed and well supplied.

* * *

-Aboard the _Pinta_-

Eduardo shouted out his orders to the Crew as he stood firm at the helm and commanded his men like any experienced commander would

"Swordsmen to the flanks of the Halberdiers. Halberdiers to the centre in ranks two men deep, do not let the god-cursed bastards on this boat!"

Eduardo jumped to the defence of the Pinta. Even though he was unarmed he insisted on leading the men in the defense.

The Pinta and the enemy galley were about equal in height, which meant that the boarding would be made much easier for the enemy crew to board, but boarding would still be difficult when your enemy had two ranks of halberdiers presenting a wall of deadly spear and axe points towards the relatively lightly armoured galley crew.

Eduardo watched as his Halberdiers made mince-meat out of any would be attackers, and after the third attempt to board the Pinta, the enemy crew gave up and raised their hands in surrender.

Eduardo saw a creature that really set Eduardo's teeth on edge. It was a large, hulking man with a set of two horns.

Eduardo realised that he had found something that Europe would want, verifiable proof of the oddities that lay on the voyage of discovery. All of Europe and by extension the Pope would be very interested if they could capture and convert a 'Native' to the mother church. Realising this he turned to his men quickly.

"Men, capture that being but do not kill him by any means, he is to survive the journey and see the Pope. He will make it in one piece or by god i will punish the man that kills him. Other than the captain of that ship, the rest can be killed. They are little better then god-cursed pirates and an impediment to all good and honest people... let them rot in hell!"

His men obeyed, they began by capturing the crew.

Eduardo saw as one man grasped an enemy native about by their neck before a second man stabbed them through with a halberd to their chest, killing them in seconds as they stuttered about on the ground. Eduardo laughed, they were like capon's before the slaughter... they lost their balls and now they were losing their lives.

* * *

**Edited at 4:04 a.m on the 13/04/2015**

*1: China was known as Cathay back in the late medieval-early renaissance period, the name is attributed to Marco Polo who called China Cathay. Zipangu is also attributed to Marco Polo, as that was the name that he gave Japan. He is also claimed to have said that Japan was one of the richest islands in the world with a large quantity of valuable gems and silver.


	2. Chapter 2: Exploration of Estwatch I

**Disclaimer: Dragon Age owned by Bioware**

**Language Notice:** At certain points there will be excessive swearing and certain symbols that may offend certain viewers. Viewer discretion advised.

* * *

**Edited on 11:32 P.M on 11/05/2015. **Revised portions of the story and added additional information. It should now flow much better.

* * *

**Chapter II**

* * *

They brought him out in Chains.

The Red haired captain, once feared in the seas now stuttered in fright before his foe. He was too afraid to even move that his captors had to urge him forward by prodding him with the bottom spikes of their halberd's to the back of his neck.

The beat of a single drummer's drum resounded through the Nau. Seagulls swarmed the deck and Eduardo knew from that that they were somewhere near land. The Spaniards did not know where they were but the red-haired captain knew and that was the information that Eduardo needed.

The beating of the drum stopped when two guardsmen approached with rope, binding the captain's left hand around the mast in the centre of the Nau. When the bonding was secured, the guardsmen left only to have two man stand in front of him.

The captain noted that one of the men was wearing richly coloured clothing that could rival Orlesian fashion as well as wearing a large feathered cap and a bushy, reddish-brown beard. The man next to him was a tall robed figure with an oddly shaved head of black hair. That man was holding a thick book in his arms and he had a cross shaped piece of wood hanging around his neck like a piece of jewellery.

The main man in the rich clothing spoke to another figure who presented him with paper and a quill with a bottle of black ink. The rich-man began to draw down on the parchment.

After about a minute of drawing the bearded man presented his drawing. It was a picture of a boat and land, a dock or a place to set ashore.

The pirate captain realised why he had been captured, so that he could show him where to find a dock or port. Well he was not going to betray Thedas to these men with Qunari-esque equipment, so he spat in his captors face.

To his grimace though, the being didn't respond with anger. Instead he smiled faintly, before calling out to a nearby guard.

* * *

Eduardo smiled faintly, he always loved this moment with interrogation's. It was when they defiantly tried to hide something from you, it was when they acted as though they were made of stone, before plummeting through the depths of excruciating pain that Eduardo would pace him through.

Castile had long ago developed methods of making enemies talk, especially Islamic infidels and it was known as the garrotte. It was simple and relied on a wooden post and a rope tied around a man's neck and a simple wooden lever, if they didn't do what you wanted or confess what you wanted then you exerted more force onto the lever until their faces turned blue. By releasing the tension the victim can regain their breath, allowing for the torture to last from minutes to hours. Garroting was a torturous and effective means of execution and interrogation in that it could be continuously applied before killing your victim and effective in that all you needed was a post, a strong stick unlikely to break under duress and a rope to tie around your victims neck, effectively meaning that any peasant could create a torture device in less than five minutes and any squad commander or group of soldiers could effectively scrounge around their packs to create an executors instrument in less than ten minutes.

"Fernando, Hebrez… i want you to fetch some rope and a stick. You will garotte him. Bring back that demon with you, i want him to know what happens when you defy me and Castile!"

Eduardo turned to face the pirate captain.

Eduardo grabbed a strip of cloth and wiped the spit off of his face before balling it up with his fist.

Eduardo punched the captain across the face twice, then forced the captains mouth open and plunging the balled up cloth inside.

It took about two minutes before Fernando and Hebrez came out of the cargo bay with the fettered demon as well as a stick and a length of rope. They sat the demon down on the aftcastle where he could get a good view of what was about to happen.

Fernando tied the rope around the captain's neck whilst Hebrez grabbed the stick and put it around the rope. When they were finished; Eduardo grabbed the piece of paper and showed it to the Captain. Eduardo then removed the ball of cloth from his mouth before motioning for him to draw a map on the paper.

The captain reacted exactly how Eduardo thought he would, he kicked the ink bottle away and moved his head side to side like a rebellious little child who had not gotten his way.

"Hebrez, tighten the rope until I tell you to stop."

Hebrez rotated the stick slowly until it finally caught tension with the rope. Hebrez could hear the coughing and gurgling sounds of his victim.

"Stop" commanded Eduardo as he watched his victim gasp for breath.

Eduardo motioned his hand to the quill and paper.

The pirate captain quickly began to draw a sketchy, falsely labelled map then handed it back to Eduardo.

Eduardo knew that this had to be a trick. To make sure, Eduardo walked up the steps of the aftcastle and presented the piece of parchment to the demon.

Eduardo let the demon look at the paper for a few seconds before Eduardo pointed a finger to the map twice then to the captain, hoping that the demon would realise his intent.

The demon, as if catching on to what Eduardo was trying to say, turned his head from side to side then began to mark out the false areas and showed what seemed to be a nearby city on the map.

"Good, powder boy!, see to it that the demon gets fed." *1

Eduardo turned to face the red-haired captain before speaking.

"May god have mercy on your retched heathen soul, because i personally hope you burn in hell's everlasting inferno."

The drummer on the deck started a quick drum roll.

Father Domino caught on and began to move his hand in the sign of the cross whilst he spoke.

"Pray that god will have mercy on your eternal soul, in nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritu Sancti, Amen!"

Hebrez took that moment to tighten the rope around the captains neck.

Eduardo, the demon and most of the crew of the _Pinta_ watched as the captain flopped his legs like a fish out of water. His cheeks turned from pink, to blue, to purple, and then after about one and a half minutes the captain gurgled and died from suffocation.

The drummer stopped his drumming.

Watching someone die that way was horrific, yet it was also effective in that it inspired fear. It showed the world the power of the kingdom of Castile and its faithful servants and about what it was willing to do to others to protect the faith and the people of the pope.

Eduardo took that moment to shout out to his crew.

"This is what Castile does to heretic... scummy pirates and their like, this is the power of Castile and this is the power of god's chosen children!"

Eduardo was greeted with the applause of a great many others; or rather he was until Eduardo began to speak again.

"The show is over, those on schedule get back to work. The rest of you can sleep, sit, sing, fish or pray, but do not harass that demon. Any man that kills him answers to me and the pope. I will say again that you will make that demon feel welcome, but you will keep your cursed eyes on the back's of your heads, or i will whip your back's raw!"

* * *

-Six hours later-

"Land Ahoy!... Land Ahoy!" Shouted out a cew member on the deck who spotted the rocky outcropping of what looked to be a cliff-filled inlet island that stretched many kilometers.

Eduardo woke up from his slumber and quickly put on his breeches before rushing out to the deck to observe the Island. Eduardo observed its rocky appearance and decided to maintain a course away from the coarse outline of the island. However, Eduardo was intent on searching the island for well needed supplies like fresh water or for any possibly valuable commodities such as herbs, spices or minerals. Of secondary importance was for the need of cataloging any species or peoples in his ledger to provide to the pope and king ferdinand with a better outline on his journey. Whatever worked for Europe worked for Eduardo as well, as it would promote increased ship building and exploration by the major european powers, England would probably be interested for they had a good naval fleet but nothing to use it for. With the devil-horned man in Eduardo's possession, he knew that if he survived the journey, that he would be welcomed in every royal court in Europe, his tales told for millenia to come and that he, Eduardo de Cordoba would become the second Marco Polo.

And as if following on with his thoughts, the devil-man came atop the deck, which was followed by the wary gazes of several soldiers and crewmen. The demon came to a stop several metres away from Eduardo and gazed at the Island before saying a word

"Estwatch"

Eduardo looked at the being before he pointed to the island and repeated what it had said as if to confirm his suspicions

"Estwatch, that island is called Estwatch?"

the Being nodded his head as if in acknowledgement

Eduardo spoke out to a nearby crew-member.

"Quill and Parchment, fetch them forth."

The Crew-member raced into Eduardo's quarters and retrieved his quill, ink and parchment paper before racing back and handing them to Eduardo.

"Thank you" replied Eduardo as he unwrapped several lengths of parchment and folded them flat on the decking before unscrewing a cap of Ink.

Eduardo tapped the quill over the film of ink in the bottle before putting it on the paper and sketched a crude outline of his ship and the island that he saw. When Eduardo was finished, he handed it over to the devil-man, who held the sheet of parchment and observed it.

The being realised what the captain wanted, a basic overview to show him where the ship was in relation to the Land and to where certain features of the island were. Saarec knew of a way to make the situation work in the favor of the Qunari, the people whom had exiled him but for whom he still loved and provide an opportunity for these Humans to destroy the raiders of the waking sea bases that lined the island.

Saarec drew a fairly detailed outline of the island of Estwatch that he could remember from the top of his head. Saarec then drew a circle over the island and drew the symbol of the skull with the slash line through the eyes. If Saarec was correct, his captors were against piracy. If they were against piracy, the probability that they would attack the enemy base would therefore be quite high. Saarec wanted the Gaatlok wielding humans to clash with the pirates. This clash would weaken the both the forces of his captor's, and the force's of the pirates and therefore leave easy pickings that the Qunari on the mainland could exploit.

Eduardo looked at the map and decided to hand it over to Peruchio.

The Italian navigator read through the map with his well trained eyes and mentally plotted the map in his head as he began to move the rudder in the right direction. The wind hit up into the lateen sail and before long, the wind was getting caught into the square sails. The _Pinta_ would fly fast like a serpent from the norse tales.

Eduardo decided to ask the rest of the soldiers aboard to don full suits of plate armour or brigandines or other good armour types, as the process could take a long time.

"Men, when we reach accessible land we are going ashore by the small boats, i want each and every soldier in armour both strong and stout, with whatever arms you choose to accompany you."

When Eduardo was finished with his command he returned back to his Quarters and began to arm and armour himself up. Eduardo reached into the wooden chest at the end of his four poster bed that held inside it his padded aketon, his Espada Ropera and his steel buckler.

Eduardo belted and buckled on his aketon over his body before reaching out to his doorway.

"Powder boy... attend to me!"

One of two of the powderboy's rushed in to help Eduardo. Eduardo turned to the youth and pointed to his collection of armour pieces.

"Armour me, leg's first and head last... i am sure you know what to do."

The boy nodded his head. "I can do that sir!." The youth then began a rush to collect up all of the relevant armour pieces from the laid out collection of armour.

Eduardo paid an expansive sum of money for his suit which was made in the gothic style. Some parts on the chest were fluted but on other surface's, it was all smooth.

From the feet to the leg's, it took about 15 minutes to armour up. Pieces of armour had to be tied on individually. They had to be tied in tightly to avoid the user becoming uncomfortable. If the armour was to be worn for days on end, the smallest knot or loosest attached bit of armour could become hell for the user.

The chest and back were easiest to armour. The plackart and cuirass with the bevor attached were easily buckled on by about six variously positioned buckles.

The fauld's were then placed over the upper legs to afford extra protection to the legs. In movement the pieces were articulated so that they would fold outwardly and inwardly and not impede movement.

Next came the pauldron's, which were tied into place. Then came the rerebrace and couter's, which were tied into place carefully to avoid uncomfortable knotting. When they were attached to both arm's, Eduardo began to move his arm's in various motions to ensure that they would fit well and would not become uncomfortable.

Next up came the attaching of the vambrace's and gauntlet's. It took some time, but now Eduardo was almost completely armoured. Eduardo again made several motions to test the performance of his armour, again everything was perfect.

Eduardo lowered his head. "Now for the helmet."

The powderboy grasped the sallet from the floor and held it out to Eduardo. Eduardo placed the helmet on his own head before lowering his bevor and tying the sallet to his head.

From head to toe Eduardo was armoured in articulated armour.

Eduardo up-visored his sallet and lowered his bevor so that his face was shown. "My sword and buckler, fetch them forth and secure them to me."

The powderboy grabbed Eduardo's espada ropera and buckled it to Eduardo's exposed leather belt. the powderboy then retrieved Eduardo's small concave shaped steel buckler and tied it loosely onto his hips. A simple short pull would be all that was needed to loosen the buckler from Eduardo's hips and put to the defense.

"Thank you boy, that is all that i need. You may leave."

Eduardo then set forth towards his tall cupboard which stored Eduardo's matchlock arquebus, with a calibre of about the size Eduardo's first finger at it's widest point. The barrel was about the length of Eduardo's outstretched arm. The wooden scouring stick was held beneath the barrel. There was a small bandoleer containing hollow tubes used for the storing of powder and shot and a bag containing all the implements for using, cleaning and maintaining the arquebus. The bag stored within it a bullet mold, scissors for removing lead sprue's*2, several lengths of matchcord, lead balls and small shot, enough for about twenty shots, a flint lighter, squares of charred cloth used with the flint to ignite the matchcord, squares of paper or hide for wadding and a hollow horn filled with fine priming powder that is always to be poured on the priming pan.

Eduardo gripped the bandoleer containing the many tubes and set it out diagonally above his torso before tying it in place. When Eduardo was done, he grabbed the bag and put it on his back before shouldering his Arquebus with the wooden frame touching his right shoulder, always careful in ensuring that the metal of his armour never met the face the metal of his gun barrel. He did not want to damage either his gun barrel or his expensive armour.

By the time Eduardo had arrived on the deck and began to view the island, the Nau had reached a narrow inlet that was not very rocky and had enough space to moor the _Pinta_, thus Eduardo ordered for the small ships to be lowered into the water before ordering soldiers to occupy each small boat

The demon appeared to investigate Eduardo's suit of armour before he turned back to observing the crewmen who were busy lowering the small boats. Eduardo took no heed of the demon's attention and began to lead his men into the two small boats

* * *

-five minutes later-

Initially, there was only two small boats, each one capable of holding about eight people comfortably. Eduardo's chosen small boat was now cramped, because of the demon sitting on the back end with his hands bound together by rough cloth and tied by thick ropes to ensure he would not be able to free himself.

The demon watched intently as Eduardo laid out his arquebus butt-first on the wooden decking with the barrel facing the left side of Eduardo's cheek. Eduardo uncorked one of the powder tubes on his bandoleer and poured the powder down the muzzle of the gun. Task done, Eduardo reached into his bag which he laid out on the decking of the small boat and retrieved half a fist full of small shot which he carefully loaded down the barrel before forcing a lead ball down the barrel. The gun fully loaded, now had to be wadded. The process of wadding the gun was simple, Eduardo did this by tearing off a piece of parchment from his bag and used his right index finger to push it down the barrel.

Eduardo pulled out the scouring stick from the frame of the gun and rammed it home down the barrel of the gun several times until the shot and wadding were compacted enough for Eduardo to be satisfied. Eduardo replaced the scouring stick back home underneath the barrel. Eduardo now had to prime the gun, which Eduardo did by shouldered the gun with the butt under his right armpit, his left hand on the wooden stock and with his right hand he flicked back the primer-pan guard.. Eduardo reached out for his priming horn at the right side of his hip, uncorked the top bit with his right thumb and laid out a small portion of priming powder on the priming pan. When this was done Eduardo re-applied the wooden stopper to the powder horn then set it down hanging off to side of his right hip. Eduardo returned his right hand back to the steel priming guard and flicked it back over the priming pan and protecting it from any future sparks or fires which could set off the Priming powder prematurely. Eduardo blew over the top of the primer-pan guard to ensure that no excess powder remained outside of the guard, to prevent a misfire should, god forbid, anything happen.

Eduardo, now finished, watched as several of his troops began the process of loading up their weapons whilst the rest just sat there with their hands on their weapons, be it a sword or a halberd.

There was one other soldier in the boat armed with what seemed to be a hand culverin, an old design. Eduardo guessed that the bore would have been about the size of two of Eduardo's fingers wide.

The harquebusier began to load his gun up as well, there was also two men armed with steel arbalest's and they began to pull out their cranequins before cranking up their steel bowstrings until they were taut and loaded in steel bolts ready to fire off with plenty of force behind them.

Eduardo turned his back to the last task at hand, and the most risky and dangerous task... igniting the matchcord and pushing it inside the firing mechanism

Firstly, Eduardo pulled out a knife and cut off a section of matchcord before coiling it around his left forearm, with that process done Eduardo pulled out a small section of charred cloth and held it within the palm of his left hand before pulling out a flint fire starter with his right hand which he forced together with his hands and started a string of sparks. One of the spark's caught itself in the charred cloth and began to start a small fire, which with quick and practiced hands Eduardo rapidly set against one end of the matchcord and waited until the first centimetre or so of the cord glowed red before blowing out the charred cloth. Eduardo then blew softly on the end of the matchlock cord and watched as it began to smoulder and produce large amounts of greyish-black smoke, an indicator that the match was burning at the right pace and not too quickly. With his matchcord correctly lit on one end, Eduard grabbed the other unlit end of the matchcord that was hanging off the end of left arm and carefully used the lit end of the matchcord to light up the other end.

"Captain?" spoke the harquebusier who brought out his hand in front of Eduardo. Inside of his hand was a section of matchcord.

Eduardo realising what the soldier wanted, brought up a lit end of his matchcord and set it against the unlit end of the soldiers matchcord until the cord lit up and started to light and then blew on it until it smouldered, producing the right kind of smoke that indicated it was burning at just the right amount.

Eduardo returned to the task at hand and brought up the front end of the burning matchcord and set it into the firing mechanism and Eduardo was finished. And not a moment too soon, it seemed seeing as both small boats where just about to hit the shore line.

Eduardo did not exactly like the position, as the shoreline was more like an expanse of 300 meters of beach that was flanked on both sides by large overhanging cliffs. Eduardo knew that if there were enemies, then they would have a rigorous advantage even with cannon on his side. On the other hand, Eduardo saw it as the site of an excellent harbour provided that there was some work done. The cliff's looked like they could maintain the burden of repeated cannon fire, so embedded cannon would make the place an heavily defensible harbour. Eduardo knew that he would do very well to return to this island and set up a colony.

Within a minute, both small boats where embedded on the surface of the beach and were dragged up several metres to avoid the boats from hitting the high tide and floating away. When this was done Eduardo scratched at his beard before he issued his orders to the crew.

There were 16 soldiers, no sailors as they were too risky to bring along and thus they were kept aboard the _Pinta_. In all, ten were in full armour and wielding halberds or billhooks or other similar weapons, and others wore three-quarter Plate and armed themselves with espada ropera's or arming swords, either to use with a buckler or by itself. The soldiers could easily revert to using half-swording*3 if need be.

One of the soldier's donned a full suit of plate and wielded a long sword that looked to be of an English/Italian influence. Eduardo could tell by looking at the pommel and cross-guard shape.

There were four crossbowmen, three who wore gambesons and donned kettle-helms, whilst the forth one, obviously one who was richer or more experienced than the other crossbowmen who wore a brigandine and donned an open sallet with an aventail made of chainmail. Each arbalest featured a tiller about a half inch-thick of steel, with steel wires taut and crannequins on the hips of the crossbowmen.

The last two were arquebusiers, one who wore a three-quarter plate, and the other who wore a plackart of good quality steel, and below that was a brigandine.

One, the soldier who Eduardo had helped to ignite his matchcord, was carrying his hand-culverin on his shoulder plate, to better support the great weight of the large gun.

The other arquebusier, who wore the suit three-quarter plate was armed with an arquebus with a barrel about the same size as Eduardo's own gun. Each one of the arquebusier's were also armed with arming swords if they ever had to fight melee.

"Follow me, keep to a loose spacing. Be sure to tell me if you spot something important, crops, heathen native's, water... that sort of thing."

Eduardo then set out his arquebus in both his hands as he began to lead his men and the demon through the wilderness, every few steps he would stop and mentally catalogue what he had seen, which he would write down or draw in his journal later on the _Pinta_.

Eduardo saw a beautiful flower that was very golden and bright, with petals of a great golden colour and a middle covered with black seeds. Eduardo had never seen a flower like it before, so Eduardo decided that he would take a cutting of it. Eduardo grabbed his sword and sliced off several flowers with ease. Eduardo used his money pouch as a makeshift bag and stored the cuttings inside.

About twenty minutes later, Eduardo heard the excited call of a soldier. "Water, spring water."

Eduardo and his men rushed towards the spring water. It was a beutiful sight, for there were fine trees surrounding a cliffside with water trickling down on one end. Eduardo knew to always be careful about water. It was always best to stick to ale or wine over water, as water was the easiest to go brackish and foul, and most prone to spoilage.

Just as a soldier was reaching in to take a drink from one of the streams of the waterfall, Eduardo quickly called out to him. "Fool, you know that if you take a sip of that water, you will likely be dead of dysentery by the time the week is through. We are going to come back here to carry the stuff, before using it to make ale."

The soldier nonchalantly returned back to the rest of the soldiers.

The expedition went on like this for roughly two more hour's. However, the sound that descended throughout a nearby hill was not expected, nor was it particularly welcomed by Eduardo's men.

Eduardo and his men followed the sounds as did the demon who was prodded along.

It took roughly twenty minutes to arrive over the hill.

When they arrived over the hill, Eduardo's men spotted what seemed to be a place filled with ruins of a long lost civilisation. There was a cliff side covered with the wreckage of many boats crashed against the rocky surface, and oddly enough to Eduardo, many seemed similarly shaped to boats as described as those of the norse men, the heathens of five hundred years past. Another distinction that Eduardo could see was that they're native boats also looked sort of like the cog's of old, though without a noticeable aft or forecastle. If that was so, naval combat would be a breeze because then the natives could be bristled with fire without much risk to Eduardo's men. A boarding action against Eduardo's vessel would be a herculean task on the part of the natives.

**"AAAHHHHHGGGGGGGHHHHH"**

Eduardo quickly adjusted one of the ends of his matchcord into the firing mechanism before he ordered his men onward, each one carefully surveying the land for any giveaways as to where the screaming had come from. The screams reminded Eduardo of his time in the italian wars. "Foul times, foul french." as Eduardo liked to describe the war to his wife back home, of course it also helped that his wife was English.

Two minutes later, they found the source within the crumbling ruins of a stone building. Eduardo soon remarked at the structure of the place. "By Santa Maria, the finest terrain i have seen in lands near and far." Eduardo could not help but be shocked by his discovery, the lay of the land and the stone fort caused Eduardo to have but one thought deep within his head.

_'This land, with a bit of work and labour will make for the finest fortified harbour in the world. Stone bulwarks bristling with sixteen culverins or basilisk's and this place will crush any and all opposing naval fleets. Spain and by extension all of Europe will be most interested in this discovery.'_

Eduardo shook himself from his thoughts and stealthily pushed on when he spotted the source of the screams. It had emerged from a man and a woman, whom were both tied up and being whipped, as a group of roughly eleven men laughed over a roaring bonfire. To be honest, it reminded Eduardo of the Landsknects and the Swiss mercenary companies that Eduardo had to fight alongside or against during the Italian wars. Eduardo admired the free lifestyle of the mercenaries, but despised their lack of manners.

Eduardo took aim with his Arquebus.

_'Perhaps I should funnel them out like rats before the slaughter, present them with a hole to escape from, then spring the trap.'_

Eduardo turned his eyes off his target and faced his crew before motioning for the halberdiers and swordsmen to surround the building except for the south side of the ruinous building, which would be covered by his Harquebusiers and Arbalesters, who would wait until the enemy entered their line of sight and spring the trap, the enemy would be point blank and slaughtered viciously. Once Eduardo fired his Gun, his Soldiers would all rush into the building and force the enemies to retreat to the south, where they would enter into the firing line of the Harquebusiers and Arbalesters

Eduardo took aim, but had to adjust when his suit of armour struck against the butt-stock and deflected it. Eduardo had to hold the butt-stock under his armpit, before using his right hand to pull back the steel primer guard. Eduardo returned his right hand back to the crossbow like trigger. With careful aim and a deep breath, Eduardo mentally counted down in his head.

_'Three.'_

Eduardo adjusted his aim slightly to the left

_'two.'_

Eduardo relaxed his right shoulder and was bracing himself for the recoil that he would soon face. Eduardo hoped that the gun would not go into his armpit, as such an action would hurt Eduardo.

_'one.'_

Eduardo tensed his right hand on the crossbow-like trigger before he pulled his fingers back on the trigger, causing the serpentine lock to move forward, causing the matchcord to hit the priming powder in the pan. The resulting flash caused Eduardo to instinctually close his eyes.

The heatwave and resultant fire burst hit the powder charge in the barrel of the gun and caused the gunpowder to ignite and burn, causing rapidly expanding gasses to force the lead shot and wadding paper out of the barrel at great speed. With the lead small shot being spread out in a wave that hit two men, and the main lead ball hitting a third man square in the upper right of his chest and downing him as the lead shot struck bone. The lead ball began to shatter into several pieces causing unimaginable amounts of trauma and damage to his body.

**KKKKKK-BBBBBBBBSSSSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHHH**

The sound of lightning and thunder reverberated throughout the small island and carried itself far and wide.

The sound shook the enemies with a fright that caused each man to jumped outright. One of the men tried to jump, only to find with terror that he could not stand as he had a small hole in his left leg that was bleeding profusely with strands of muscle fibre showing in the front of the wound and with a small exit wound. A second man could do nothing at all, as he was on the floor, bleeding profusely as he had three holes in his chest and shoulder area. The bullets entered but never exited through. The man gasped in pain, before dying with a gurgled groan.

"What in Andraste's flami… aaacckkkk!" cried out a nearby sentry before he had his neck pierced in by the end of a halberd.

"Andraste's tits, enemies on our flanks." shouted out an alarmed thief who pulled out his pair of daggers before trying to sideswipe a nearby enemy soldier. His attempt failed as both daggers glanced off the smooth surface of the steel plate and he was promptly rewarded by a pommel strike with the back end of a bill hook which pushed him back and dazed him. Pressing his advantage, the soldier skilfully reversed the hook end of the bill and clawed out the back of his opponents left leg and forced him to the ground. The soldier rushed up and with the aid of gravity, pushed the spear point down with sickening ease into the body of the fool and killed him with precision. The soldier pulled the spear out, and grinned at the sight of the enemies flesh that stuck to the hooked end of his billhook.

The other rogues where stunned both by the impacting sound of the gunshot and by the unexpected ambush by well armed soldiers. Their fear was palpable, it gripped each and every one of the thieves, pirates and convicts. Knowing that the only way to live was to escape through the south passage, all quickly routed with great haste, only to be stopped when several of them fell to the impact of steel bolts piercing through their bodies, or to the thunderous applause of gunfire.

Eduardo pointed his hand out to a nearby soldier to untie the bonds of the two. Eduardo walked up to both captives to hold up a hand to aid them, but Eduardo refrained from doing so as they were different, in that they had ears that were both sharp and long.

* * *

**Saarec's P.O.V**

* * *

Saarec watched as within less than two minutes, all the Pirates where promptly cut down. Not a plea of mercy, or a whispered prayer to Andraste could save them from their cruel and well trained foes. Their weapons were useless, they could not even put a dent on their opponents armour. They're enemies had the advantage with reach from their axe and hook implemented spears. Rogue smoke bombs did disorientate their enemies, that was ture, but it only worked for a short time. Saarec laughed himself when the same thug who dropped the smoke grenade thought that it would be a good idea to try and pounce on his heavily armoured opponent with two of his blades, only to end up with the blades glancing off and landing on the floor like a fool. The enemy soldier he targeted had the simple task of embedding his sword through the fool's neck. When the smoke cleared away, the thief's and pirates where all singled out for execution by their enemies. They worked as a team, with the strange-spearmen keeping their enemies on the defensive whilst the swordsmen attacked from the flank. If a swordsman was at risk, one of the spearmen would keep the enemy off balance and allow the swordsman enough time to retreat back. That tactic itself was very similar to certain Qunari tactics, and that fact shocked Saarec.

_'I must be exceptionally careful when dealing with these Bas, or else I might be killed.'_ thought Saarec.

The often either poorly trained or poorly equipped pirate foes that the gaatlok soldiers fought had no chance.

Saarec heard something hit the brush just outside the gated stone ruins that was once a fort. This was once a Qunari fort, Sareec could tell from the architecture. Whatever that sound was important, and if he hoped to curry any favour with his captors, he would have to again aid them.

With care, Saarec tapped on the back of one of the soldiers who was guarding him. The soldier turned around and faced him, and was about to hit him with the back of his spear-like weapon but paused. Saarec pointed out with his tightly bonded hands in the direction of where he had heard the sounds. Saarec then gesticulated the walking steps of a man with his bound hands.

The gaatlok soldier must have understood Saarec's reasoning quickly. The soldier carefully spoke to his commander. The brownish-red bearded man in the elaborate suit of armour.

Saarec remarked at the armour. It seemed to be very thin but it was shaped in such a way as to cause strikes to glance off rather than impact, also the armour was extremely well designed. Saarec noticed that the man only had small patches of chain mail, but not covering. It seemed that the armour did not need to have a chainmail backing. Saarec noticed that unlike templar armour, their suits of armour barely hindered or impeded in their motion of movemnet in any way. It seemed that they could bend the knee or flick their toes fully. They could also raise and lower a flap of armour around their heads and lower or raise a neck piece that he had seen the captain wear. These were developments that Saarec had not seen on any suits of armour yet… except on ancient Dwarven texts.

Saarec broke away from his observations and inner thinking when the bearded man, the captain, approached the soldier and spoke in his language. Saarec guessed that the captain had just questioned about what the soldier had seen.

The soldier responded by pointing to Saarec before he spoke quietly and calmly, then pointed in the direction that the Saarec had heard the noise come from.

The captain motioned horizontally with his left hand before he uttered a quick and quiet command. All the soldiers and crossbowmen stopped what they were doing and they all began searching for battlements or a defensible position whilst a few soldiers ran towards the captain before stopping at his side. Obviously they were to accompany the captain, but for what?

Unexpectedly, one of the captive elves raced towards the captain. Saarec took a closer look and saw that it was a Dalish elf from the facial tattoo's that adorned his face.

The soldiers beside the captain took a defensive action when one pushed the captain out of the way and the other one raised up his spear-like weapon in the Dalish elf's face

The Dalish elf stopped before he spoke. Saarec could understand some of what the elf spoke.

"You stupid Shemlen, i am not going to attack you, i am going to help you."

"Bastardo estúpido!"

The Dalish elf looked shocked.

Saarec took the opportunity to speak or rather growl out as he did not want to shame himself by his lack of fluency.

"The... they not understand you, speak another language."

The Dalish cursed in his native tongue before he replied.

The Captain quietly calmed down the soldier's in front of him. Saarec guessed that it had something to do with the lowering of the soldiers spears and weapons that were raised at the Dalish elf.

"Who are these Shemlen's… and that weird magic they yield, i dont know what kinda spell that was, might have to ask my village elder about that."

Saarec took the time to explain about the human's gaatlok weaponry.

"That not magic, but… small gaatlok cannon that can be wielded. They have a small ship with larger gaatlok cannon."

The Dalish elf sighed before retorting sarcastically.

"Great, first it was you Qunari with the black powder, but now these Shemlen cur's have them too... the great humilities that befall upon us Elvhen."

The captain stood between Saarec and the Dalish elf when he knew that they had finished talking. Both he and the Dalish elf looked at the captain.

The captain, now knowing that he had their full attention began to point his hands towards the direction of the noise.

The Dalish elf garnered a basic grasp of what the human wanted, but there was no way in the fade that he was going without a weapon. So he quickly walked up to a nearby corpse and looted one of the dagger's and took a smoke grenade with him as well.

The captain allowed the elf to wield a weapon but he was much more cautious now.

Saarec decided to quickly quickly scale the ruined walls of the ancient Qunari fort. One of the soldiers helped him up, but even with the assistance it was difficult. The aging crenelations made it much more difficult, as the mortar could give way at any moment. Upon reaching the wall, Saarec and the nearby soldier began to observe what The captain and the elf where doing.

The Dalish elf quickly ran in front of the captain and went about searching through the brush outside for any enemies.

Saarec noticed the flapping of a pigeon and saw as it carried a small piece of parchment. Saarec knew instantly that it would alert the pirates in Little Llomerryn, that was roughly eight to ten hours away by horseback. By pigeon though Saarec guessed that it may take as much as four to five hours before they would be alerted, and another six to seven hours after that before any reinforcements might arrive. If the captain cleared out within that time period, he had a high chance of escaping before being swallowed whole.

Saarec heard as a shriek of pain emanated through from the brush. However Saarec could not see what had occurred through the thick brush.

* * *

**To Be Continued**

* * *

And that was Chapter two of Thedas: The New World

What did you Think?

*1: A Powder boy was a young boy, about ten to twelve year's of age serving on board of a ship. They were generally given the tasks of assisting crew members and to fetch barrels of gunpowder to gunners during a battle.

*2: A sprue is the excess bits caused from casting or molding metal.

*3: Halfswording is a high-medieval/renaissance period technique of using one hand to grasp the blade, allowing for a sword to be used in a similar manner as a spear. Thus the sword could be used to target the weak-points in armoured opponents with far greater precision than normal.


	3. Rewrite in progress

This is not an update... But a confirmation that in a few days time (give or take) i will be rewriting the chapters to match up with the newly updated Dragon Age canon. I may also make a few changes to the story here and there as well, but nothing major will be happening. I will be leaving a date and text message down on the bottom of each chapter in bold to show that i have edited that chapter.

Hopefully the updates will not take too long!


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